Tomlinson: Time to flush Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh

This past Saturday, Democrat candidate for House of Delegates in District 5, Emily Shank, held a fundraiser in downtown Westminster. Her special guest was none other than Maryland’s Attorney General Brian Frosh, who was greeted by two dozen rambunctious protestors (myself included). I have to give some credit to Shank for helping Frosh find his way to Carroll, since our state's chief legal counsel hasn’t spent much time in our fair county. However, this is not a shocking revelation because Frosh and the majority of Carroll’s citizens have very little in common.

Prior to being elected Attorney General in 2014, Frosh represented far-left Montgomery County in the General Assembly with his first term starting in 1987. Since being elected Attorney General, Frosh has pushed an out-and-out liberal agenda and has become a constant headache for two of Carroll County’s favorite elected officials — President Donald Trump and Governor Larry Hogan.

President Trump has been in office for less than two years, but that has not stopped Frosh from suing his administration or joining in lawsuits filed by states’ attorney generals, more times than you can shake a stick at. Our overreaching chief legal officer has become the equivalent of a political ambulance chaser who manufactures frivolous lawsuits for headlines instead of profit. He has used his authority to sue the president over his immigration policies, the Constitution’s little-known “Emoluments Clause,” a 2020 U.S. Census citizenship question, and even his 2017 Tax reform act, which put more money back in the pockets of hard-working Americans.

Due to Frosh’s litigious obsession when it comes to President Trump, Republican state delegates and senators, led by Carroll County’s Del. Haven Shoemaker, sent Frosh a letter last summer, asking him to ease up on the lawsuits against the Trump Administration and to consider consulting with our governor before filing or joining any more lawsuits. As one could predict, Frosh brushed off the legislators’ request. Del. Shoemaker recently said regarding Filing Frosh, “In Carroll County, we're not buying what he's selling. At a time when opioid-related deaths are off the charts and so are homicides in Baltimore City, Frosh should be spending less time suing Trump and attending fundraisers for fellow leftists, and more time doing his job.”

Gov. Hogan has also found himself butting heads with Frosh over the past several years. The governor has asked Frosh on more than one occasion to not gin up or join lawsuits against the president. The problem is that since 2017, when the Democrat-controlled state legislature granted the attorney general with the absolute authority to sue the federal government without the governor’s permission, Frosh has had no reason to listen to Hogan. This did not stop Gov. Hogan from cutting money out of his budget that Maryland lawmakers promised Frosh he could have for his grandstanding anti-Trump lawsuits. The Hogan administration instead suggested to Frosh that he reallocate money from his office’s Consumer Protection Division to fund his ongoing legal follies against Trump.

The good news is that all Maryland voters have opportunity on Nov. 6 to flush Frosh and put a new attorney general in office — Craig Wolf. Frosh’s challenger is a former Assistant State’s Attorney in Allegany County, former federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice, counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and CEO of a national trade association. More importantly, after the tragic events of 9/11, Wolf enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 40 in 2003.

When elected, Wolf has promised to refocus the Office of the Attorney General and confront the real issues facing Maryland. Serious problems such as the opioid epidemic, where here in Carroll County we saw a 76 percent increase in fatal drug and alcohol overdoses in the first half of 2018 over the first half of 2017. Wolf also promises to tackle Baltimore City’s homicide rate, which saw 343 murders in 2017, the highest number the city has ever seen in one year even though the population continues to decrease.

Wolf recently said “As Attorney General, I will focus on public safety, not politics and partisanship. That is why I have received the endorsement of the governor, along with the overwhelming number of elected sheriff’ and state’s attorneys, both Democrat and Republican.” It should come to no surprise that Wolf received the endorsement of the Maryland’s Fraternal Order of Police. Frosh received the same endorsement four years ago, but after law enforcement officers from around the state reviewed his performance they decided to pass on him this time around. The FOP should not be the only ones to forget Frosh in this year’s General Election.

At a legislative breakfast in Westminster this past February, Wolf said, “In the 2014 election, Brian Frosh told his primary opponent that an elected official that doesn’t do his job doesn’t deserve to be promoted.” Wolf then asked those in attendance if they felt that Frosh deserved to be promoted to a second term as attorney general. The crowd gave a resounding “No!” and one hopes the voters do the same on election day.